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Battle Network 5: Double Team DS (Team ProtoMan) – Pre-Let’s Play Notes
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Voice Actors
Lan Hikari
- DTDS: Kumiko Higa (JP), Mark Gatha (EN)
MegaMan.EXE
- DTDS: Akiko Kimura (JP), Jeffrey Watson (EN)
ProtoMan.EXE
- DTDS: Masaya Matsukaze (JP), Tommy James (EN)
- Anime: Masaya Matsukaze (JP), David Kaye (EN)
Colonel.EXE
- DTDS: Hiroki Yasumoto (JP), Tommy James (EN)
- Anime: Hiroki Yasumoto (JP), N/A (EN)
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Preface
- Battle Network 5 is a confusing game for me. It's hardly one of my Top 3 in the series, and I think it has a lot working against it. But somehow it still manages to be just enjoyable enough for me to not dislike it completely.
- The simplified animations of many things are said to be carried over from 4. Keep a watch to see if that is true.
- Navis without Counterparts: FootMan/GridMan, SwallowMan/LarkMan, CosmoMan, Meddy
- Unused Dialogue: Japanese, English
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Opening
- In Japanese, the opening theme of the game is "Be Somewhere", the theme of the Stream season of the anime. It’s a shame to lose it internationally, especially given that Stream covered both Battle Network 5 and the Duo plot of 4, though it was something of a necessary change given that American audiences never got the Stream season, dubbed or otherwise. Having a remix of the original Battle Network theme is an acceptable replacement, especially given the ending credits also use a leitmotif from the original Battle Network.
- The game's plot begins in 19XX, at the point where Cyber Society was almost completed. I feel angry at real life for denying me a Net Society, but a terrorist hasn't tried to burn my house down with my own oven, so I guess I'll take the good with the bad.
- While this opening conversation will be important in framing the plot later, it does feel a bit too brief for its insertion at the beginning. I don't think much would've been lost to cut it now and then just have it play out in full where it does already in the plot.
- The soundtrack IMMEDIATELY establishes itself as much better than 4's. Akari Kaida, who previously composed Battle Network 1 and 4.5's soundtracks, returns here, though the DS games apparently did not involve her in working on the remixes. Instead, Yoshino Aoki and Seiko Kobuchi arranged those, the former returning from Battle Networks 2 and 3.
- There are only three voice actors in this game, with only Lan, MegaMan, and the two Leader Navis being voiced. While the actors don't give bad readings, the voice direction is questionable. Both MegaMan and Colonel sound fine, but Lan and ProtoMan both sound much older than they're supposed to be.
- Each of the voice actors previously worked on the MegaMan X series. Mark Gatha, former voice of X, replaces Brad Swaile as Lan Hikari. Jeffrey Watson, Axl's voice actor in X8 and Command Mission, replaces Andrew Francis as MegaMan. Finally, Tommy James replaces David Kaye as ProtoMan and pulls double duty as Colonel.
- I suppose NT Warrior already started the trend of ill-fitting voices by having David Kaye voice ProtoMan in the first place, but I remember how strange it was to hear Blues sound like a young man, while ProtoMan has a gravelly voice. It's also weird that the twins have different VAs, but the two unrelated Navis share the same one.
- I have to wonder why Capcom didn't get one of Zero's VAs to play ProtoMan if they were going to reuse the X games' voice actors. They already went out of their way to assign as many Zero traits to him as possible.
- The tournament trophies from 4 are featured on Lan's shelf now. There is also a poster of Otenko. On the desk is a picture of two young boys, and it's mentioned to be one of Lan's most prized possessions. Presumably Lan and Hub as babies?
- Emails are now divided into sections, making it easier to see what is just fluff from the story, what's a tutorial, and so on.
- Viruses breaking into Lan's homepage is the excuse for the tutorial this time, which makes sense given how homepages had viruses in previous games, though Lan's haven't had any since BN1. Much like 4, Lan and MegaMan handle the tutorial on their own.
- Combat is the same as in BN4, only Anxiety no longer summons Dark Chips.
- Lan makes commentary every time you jack in, use a Double Soul, or use a Program Advance. MegaMan makes commentary when using the L button, during battle when using chips or taking hits, after every battle, and when the DS leaves sleep mode. I wish there was an option to toggle this on and off, as sometimes it gets very tiresome to hear Watson's over-the-top yelling for a very mild attack chip.
- The bottom screen features a map function, though the map data needs to be found for all areas aside from ACDC 1 and ACDC 2, which seems to defeat the purpose of the map. Why not just have the map be functional from the get-go? Dungeons also have their maps placed at the start, which further defeats the purpose of making them collectibles. Even stranger is the decision for some maps to be hidden in side areas, such as the map for Oran 2 being hidden in the Crane Comp.
- Net Dealers can now no longer run out of chips and also show you how many codes a chip comes in, as well as how many chips of the alternate codes are in your possession. Very nice improvement!
- To my dismay, isolated Networks have returned to being huge again.
- Homepages were changed in the English GBA version, likely for cartridge space. Mayl, Dex, and Yai's were all recolored versions of Lan's. Generic comp spaces were also changed from blue to green. Double Team DS restores all of the above to their original forms.
- Mayl's homepage has returned to the piano theme rather than the teddy bear motif of the last game.
- While walking on the bridge in Mayl's PC, I accidentally found a hidden section of her homepage that had her diary. That's hilarious.
- Homepages have viruses again, but still have BBSes. To my annoyance, Mayl continues not to have a BBS.
- The squirrel in ACDC Park cannot be jacked into yet, but the tree that becomes relevant far later in the game can. Odd choice.
- When the group arrives at SciLab, Mayl is the only one to ask Lan how he's holding up regarding the situation with his dad always being busy.
- Dr. Regal would have won if Yuichiro hadn't forgotten his ID Card. On that note, while it's not stated, the fact that Yuichiro can't access anything without an ID Card now and the way he speaks about it as if it's a new change makes me believe SciLab relocated and is implementing new policies following the FlameMan incident.
- In a rare action for a villain, Dr. Regal actually repeats his plan from the end of the last game where he had Nebula Navis isolate parts of the Net, albeit with the variation of having Darkloids actually turn the areas into occupied territories rather than just erecting gates. It worked well enough the first time, so I can't blame him.
- It's amazing how Dr. Regal has been onscreen for only a few seconds, and he is significantly improved from his portrayal in the last game. SciLab has been breached and compromised, the Net has been occupied, and the main characters have been incapacitated all before he even steps into the room. He's even sporting a much better look and has a leitmotif now.
- Despite that, however, Battle Network 5 commits its first major action that bothers me. Yuichiro being kidnapped doesn't change much about the usual Battle Network dynamic; he's often kidnapped anyway. The confiscation of Roll and Co., however, does not sit well with me. In about an hour, the game is going to start introducing team dynamics where MegaMan uses the help of his friends to take back the Net. The exclusion of his already established friends from a logical role feels spiteful.
- It's entirely possible that this action of Regal's is in response to their Deus ex Machina barrier from the last game, but at the same time, he should have no way of knowing about that given that he believed that MegaMan had perished until Lan reappeared at NAZA and no one affiliated with Nebula was around to witness their arrival at Castillo.
- Lan's friends were already sidelined in Battle Networks 2 and 4 prior to this, so having it happen extremely early on as if to say outright that they will not be important leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Both Mayl and Dex have tried to make strides to improve their battle prowess so they can help Lan, only for the writing to shaft them at every turn. Unfortunately, this just seems to be the standard treatment of Lan's friends, as Battle Network 6 will continue this trend.
- Regal not seeing Lan I can forgive, but there's a goon on the right who has no excuse for being unable to see Lan unless he's blind. Then again, I suppose he is wearing a gas mask. This is less of a glaring issue in the GBA version, where Lan is hidden offscreen.
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ProtoMan
Personal Notes
- ProtoMan can be defeated by two Guard chips. From either upper or lower column, use Guard1 when ProtoMan jumps into MegaMan's area. It immediately hits, countering him, and then hits again with the shockwave. Performing the maneuver again in Full Synchro will take the rest of his health.
Commentary
- Lan slept for three days after exposure to the gas, but his friends all woke up before him and seem to be fine. This is despite them being face down unconscious in front of the spewing gas grenade while Lan was at a farther distance. I also imagine being unconscious for three days should cause serious health complications, but of course Lan will be just fine.
- I'm not sure what to make of Nebula not attacking Lan's house in three days. On one hand, only one Nebula goon found Lan's house and he was killed by ShadeMan, so it's possible that Nebula doesn't actually know where he lives. More shame on ShadeMan if that's the case. On the other hand, Dr. Regal should be intimately aware with information about the Hikaris and it's not as though they're in the witness protection program. I suppose Regal is too busy thinking about Soul Net to focus on MegaMan at the moment, but that still is a massive oversight on his part considering his cautious actions in the prior scene.
- Nebula has taken over the Net, but Net Dealers continue to sell their wares despite that. That's capitalism, baby!
- Despite 4.5 making new Heel Navi battle sprites for the black Heels, Battle Network 5 completely jettisons all battles with Normal and Heel Navis despite there being multiple places in this game where they could have logically occurred. I'm not sure why.
- Despite the fact he was unconscious for three days, Dex and Yai have nothing to say to Lan and are still moping over their Navis. Mayl, despite being down, does at least still worry about Lan and talks to him before he goes to SciLab. I do like how Mayl can be portrayed as Lan's closest friend.
- This attack on SciLab is presumably staged, with the email likely only being sent to Lan as a means of recruiting him onto the upcoming team. The SciLab staff is also conspicuously absent aside from the one man who ran out the building as soon as Lan arrived.
- I'd like to say the passwords in the system being easy to solve is also an indicator of how this is a test for Lan, but I'm suddenly remembering "Curiosity killed the ___?" from the Mother Computer incident.
- ProtoMan's introduction as the culprit behind the incident does not work. MegaMan immediately is relaxed upon seeing him and assumes he's here to catch the guilty party. When the battle starts, ProtoMan is noticeably sandbagging, which would be very obvious to Lan and MegaMan given they've fought him multiple times. There is also no reason for Chaud to test Lan and MegaMan like this after he's saved the world five times at this point.
- Colonel's introduction as the culprit behind the incident is excellent. He is an adversary that Lan and MegaMan have never met, and he is able to hold back without it immediately being obvious he is doing so. His mysterious nature also ensure that Lan and MegaMan would fight more seriously from the outset.
- Chaud/Baryl state that the team is to remain top secret, but I have no idea how this would be accomplished. By sheer virtue of the fact that they're fighting Nebula and liberating areas, it would become clear that the team exists. MegaMan would be an immediate suspect as a member of the team. Keeping the team secret also seems to defeat the purpose of a team in the first place, since MegaMan and ProtoMan alone would be hard-pressed to take on all of Nebula without support. The previous game even has ProtoMan use a Dark Chip for that very reason, though it's very likely that Blue Moon leads into Team Colonel given a later scene in the game, and thus that sequence of events has not happened to this iteration of Chaud.
- This game has a lot of typos. Chaud tells Lan that saving Yuichiro is possible with Team ProtoMan by saying "This mission is the one shot we have at saving me." Apparently, this might be the result of the DS port adding script errors that didn’t exist in the original GBA games.
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BlizzardMan
Personal Notes
- If you have a Navi choose to battle with another Navi by standing on the same panel as them, they will offer them support in battle ala the Party Battle System. This feature has a lot of typos when confirming it, though.
- ProtoMan/Colonel (Thoughts): ProtoMan and Colonel both have their strengths, but ProtoMan seems to be overall superior. He has Reflect for innate shielding, can StepSword to enemies to attack them (offering slightly better aiming than Colonel's TankCannon), and offers Double Hero as a Double Attack that hits the entire enemy field. Colonel, for his part, has a homing Charge Shot and more customization slots, but those advantages are fairly minor in comparison.
Version Exclusive Dialogue
- ProtoMan: Listen up, we're Team ProtoMan! Your time is UP, BlizzardMan!
- *BlizzardMan responds*
- ProtoMan: Guess he wants to do this the hard way. Ready, Lan?
Commentary
- I like how Chaud starts off by chewing out Lan in a manner indicative of his older characterization when Lan starts expressing hesitancy, only to immediately point out that he believes in Lan's ability and wouldn't trust ProtoMan in anyone else's hands.
- A place called End City is mentioned to be the center of the network. Is it the capital of Electopia?
- What does occupying the Net do, exactly? I'm assuming it cuts off certain areas, but nothing particularly bad seems to be happening in ACDC. The viruses aren't different and there are several Navis and programs who are sticking around. I guess it's mainly just to cause some communication block and a headache for the Officials while Regal works on Soul Net, which I believe is in fact what he says later.
- If only one person can operate in the occupied areas, I have no idea why Darkloids weren't given operators by Regal. Or, better yet, Regal could just remove the ability to operate entirely and forego the operators entirely. It seems like this is just a handwave excuse for Liberation Missions to exist.
- Colonel's Cannon and the TankCannon Battle Chip can both push obstacles, much like an AirShot chip.
- I find myself wondering why Lan can achieve Full Synchro with other people's Navis. I was under the impression it was just a special skill he could do with his twin brother, but apparently it works with just about anyone.
- BlizzardMan doesn't really fit the Darkloid motif. I guess the idea is supposed to be that he represents the darkness of a blizzard, as in low visibility, but he looks way too cutesy next to his coworkers. He looks like he should be friends with IceMan, not trying to cover the world in darkness.
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MagnetMan/ShadeMan
Personal Notes
- GBA Slot-In: Battle Network 2
- MagnetMan/KnightMan (Thoughts): Both Navis are about equal, having Super Armor and a fantastic defensive support ability. MagnetMan has more mobility, being able to move between panels faster than KnightMan can. He also has a ranged Charge Shot, Air Shoes, and Float Shoes. However, he does have an element, which can be punished by Wood viruses in later Liberation Missions. KnightMan, meanwhile, has a free defensive block for nearby characters during Liberation Missions and a Charge Shot that has Breaking properties. He also is able to handle being surrounded better than MagnetMan.
Version Exclusive Dialogue
- ProtoMan: ShadeMan! This is the end of the line!
- *ShadeMan responds*
- ProtoMan: Here he comes!
- Lan: Let's go, ProtoMan!
- MagnetMan: Hey, Shade-face! You're MINE!
- *ShadeMan responds*
- MagnetMan: Here he comes!
- Lan: C'mon, MagnetMan!
Commentary
- Upon replaying the Liberation Mission, ProtoMan's HP was upped from 200 to 300. I assume each scenario bumps up the HP of Navis in Liberation Missions when cleared.
- In Double Team DS, Chaud/Baryl call Lan to SciLab to test a new system that lets him use multiple Navis in battle outside of Liberation Missions or story related dungeons. This is a pretty nifty addition that prevents playing as other Navis from being exclusive to Liberation Missions or the final dungeon and allows new uses for them; Meddy in particular gets to actually have the healing capabilities she lacked in the original.
- "This new system will aid you in the tough battle against Nebula. Except not really, since it's always disabled in plot areas."
- Apparently the Navi Change system was part of the original BN5 on the GBA with Chip Gate, albeit not as expanded as DTDS' version. In the GBA version, there was a glitch that let MegaMan reuse the first turn benefit of whatever Soul he had equipped (i.e.: creating a Grass Stage with Tomahawk Soul upon transformation). To get around that, Navi Change reverts MegaMan to base form in the DS game.
- Navis have "Limit Breaks" called Double Attacks they can perform when switching while Full Synchro. These increase in strength as the game goes on. That's a neat feature, but a memo that listed all six of them would have been nice. Additionally, I think the games would've benefited from a few more. Maybe 8 - 12 total for each team? GyroMan, TomahawkMan, NumberMan, SearchMan, Meddy, and ToadMan only feature in one attack each.
- This game has made mention of real world places a few times now. One of Mr. Prog's hints in the SciLab computer did, and now Oran Isle is mentioned as in the Pacific Ocean. It's also a two hour trip to Oran Isle, so naturally Lan will be coming and going from here quite a bit in the story with no concern for that. I suppose it's a more sensible amount of distance to cover than the foreign countries, though!
- While this scenario does inevitably turn into "Lan's friends are in danger again", I do like this little opening bit where they're just spending time together and goofing off. It reminds me of Okuden Valley or the night at the Ura Inn, except it's allowed to last longer.
- "Houdini of the Beach" continues being an urban legend 200 years from now in Star Force 3, even if the name was changed for whatever reason. Probably something like a game of Telephone, I imagine, though "Boxers Off" is a considerably less cool name.
- A bunch of kids playing on an island while a middle-aged scientist tries to take over the world with darkness. Did this game just become Kingdom Hearts?
- Conveniently, the very next area Chaud wants to liberate is an area attached to a place that Lan is at right now. And despite the fact that it's isolated, it still has a working speaker that's attached to the Net. Wouldn't this have been worn down by the elements? How is this thing still intact?
- Lan makes a Pokémon reference ("Not even a nibble!") while fishing?
- The ground shakes violently and Lan's friends just assume that it's the gods telling him to hurry and get firewood. Even if they're joking, why is Lan the only one concerned by this?
- Despite the fact that Dex doesn't believe Lan about his fish and Yai doesn't comment on it, Mayl seems to think he's telling the truth. It might just be because love interests and all, but it does seem like Lan and Mayl are a bit closer friends than the rest of the group.
- Yai encouraging Lan to put out the fire is responsible, but it's also on the beach. What's going to go up in flames? The sand?
- One of Yuichiro's assistants gives Lan the Navi Customizer at this time. This game doesn't attempt to give a reason why it was taken from Lan again, though I assume it’s just that it had to be adapted to the new PET model.
- Lan's friends are in danger again. I know this leads to the recruitment of the next team member, but this is reminding me of how 4 started out with such a charming scenario that took a hard shift into the unpleasant. I know it's too much to expect a scenario to just be "Lan has a nice time with his friends", but it'd be nice if meeting new characters didn't come at their expense.
- Why is this Navi standing in an isolated section of a network linked to a place that no one visits anymore? Of course you don't have much money; you're as cut off from the world as can be.
- The Crane and Elevator Comps can be unlocked during the visit to the mines, allowing you to get the RegUps there. Since there's not a great selection of chips available at present, this might not be entirely necessary, especially given the very near backtracking segment that comes after the upcoming boss.
- In English, Lan shouts at Tesla to turn off the drill and she ignores him because he's being rude by not saying please. In Japanese, Netto is calling for her attention by saying "obaasan" (grandma), which she ignores twice until he changes it to "oneesan" (big sister). This makes her follow-up remark about her age more understandable.
- Lan tells Tesla that his friends are below the drill and Tesla's response is basically "Haha, I don't give a fuck. Do it yourself for calling me old." Despite this, we're expected to not only like her, but also see her as one of the heroes in this game. The anime actually has Tesla as a villain for the Stream season, though she reforms later in the arc.
- In Team Colonel, this scenario involves Princess Pride drilling on Oran Isle for MagnoMetal, the presence of which causes KnightMan goes out of control for some absurd reason involving magnetism. As a result, Princess Pride CAN'T turn off the drills, which shows that she's not a bad person (anymore) and also gives KnightMan a chance to make up for his wrongdoing of his own volition once he regains his senses. It even alludes to a future plot point! That said, why doesn't the magnetism have a negative effect on MegaMan like it did on KnightMan?
- You know, in hindsight, this is the second scenario involving Princess Pride that has people conveniently falling into trap holes the exact width they need to be of the people that conveniently walk right atop them. Why is this her thing?
- Giant rocks are falling all over the room that Lan's friends are in, but they continue to have room to run around and not get crushed to death immediately.
- And here we have another scenario where Rockman punches busts rocks. Someone really liked that joke from Battle Network 4.
- The rock minigame in this dungeon is a bit obnoxious. Rocks are used as both breakable obstacles and obstacles that are meant to be ignored and not broken because there's not enough time. The result of that is that occasionally MegaMan will turn to break a rock that I just want to run past and get dumped over the edge of the conveyor belt. I feel they should've committed to one idea or the other, not both. But as frustrated as I may be, I know there's worse dungeons yet to come...
- As I sit here and watch Tesla continue to run this giant drill, I have to wonder how stress relieving this really is for her. And how this came to be her go to method for stress relief. I guess it's an isolated place, so she could get away with doing it. Maybe she even owns the drill. But it still seems more than a little eccentric.
- Tesla's motivation for having MagnetMan attack Lan and potentially kill three children is that she's angry that Lan caused her skin to get wrinkly. What?
- After the battle, Tesla decides to deactivate the machine, which I guess is supposed to paint her as honorable. But she knowingly endangered the lives of children for no reason, so fuck her.
- What is the purpose of the electronic door to the mine? To close off people on the outside getting in? It seems like a safety hazard waiting to happen given what just happened here.
- For whatever reason, deactivating the door is an illegal operation. How is it supposed to be disabled? Was the giant button a red herring? At any rate, it seems like trying to break into the mine is grounds for a Temple of Doom style execution for your Navi. And despite pressing the button being an illegal operation, the door opens up anyway!
- The heroic music plays while MagnetMan literally says "Fuck you, I would've let you die if it wasn't for Tesla telling me to do otherwise." Soundtrack dissonance.
- Thanks for the help, Tesla! Even though you needlessly picked a fight in a life or death situation! Even though you could've shortened this whole experience by about 15 minutes! Even though you could've possibly killed my friends through inaction!
- MagnetMan specifically states that he doesn't want to help The Officials and even is resistant to listening to ProtoMan. Why are they going out of their way to make MagnetMan seem as unrepentant and evil as possible? That's just going to make the upcoming Double Soul seem more ridiculous.
- ShadeMan's actual ability is not made clear by ProtoMan/Colonel. ShadeMan can "attack from any direction" if party members finish their turn near a Dark Panel. If they don't, then he can't hit them.
- TinHawk has a hitbox before he begins his attack, so he can be hit while still visually in midair.
- I wonder what the other operators do when Lan is controlling all of their Navis during a mission.
- After the battle, Tesla does apologize to Lan's friends for her actions. While I appreciate the game trying to sand off her edges, why not make her come across as less abrasive from the outset so there was less need to course correct?
- Between the two scenarios, I feel as though Pride's makes more sense. I don't remember if she's cleared to drill here, because that'd be rather odd if she just showed up in another country and just started mining for minerals. Why is a princess mining for minerals herself anyway? That aside, it just feels like a scenario that's more befitting of a future team member rather than someone being borderline homicidal unapologetically. Additionally, MagnetMan still clearly holds a grudge against MegaMan, which makes him seem potentially unreliable, and his barrier ability is manufactured out of thin air to fit him in this scenario. He never used one in Battle Network 2, and he only uses one in Battle Network 5 as a support ability, while KnightMan's Stone Body has been a feature since his debut.
- Dr. Regal tortures Yuichiro for information on Soul Net. This might easily be one of the darkest scenes in the series. Jeez. This is then followed up by him telling CloudMan, likely within earshot of Yuichiro, to concentrate on getting rid of MegaMan, just for added dickishness.
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GyroMan/CloudMan
Personal Notes
- GBA Slot-In: Battle Network 4
- Don't save after showing off the Battle Network 4 effect. Instead, activate BN4's data at the end of the game so that the PA Memos are the final posts on every BBS.
- CustVolt is able to be gained around this time. I initially wrote it off as being another Custom Sword, but it maxes out damage 3/4 of the way through the Custom Bar being filled, hits in a T shape, and depletes the Custom Gauge. It could have a niche use in Liberation Missions.
- GyroMan/ShadowMan (Thoughts): These two are also about even in terms of usefulness. Both are Null Element and have Float Shoes. GyroMan has Air Shoes, a bit more customization space, and can remove barriers. ShadowMan has a homing Charge Shot and built-in Anti-Damage. ShadowMan's support ability helps turn the tide if MegaMan is at low HP, while GyroMan's is focused more on close range attack support.
Version Exclusive Dialogue
- ProtoMan/GyroMan: CloudMan! Give it up! He won't, of course.
- Lan: That's right! His combat ability is incredibly high. Be careful, ProtoMan./Careful, GyroMan!
- MagnetMan: CloudMan! Give it up!
- Lan: He won't, of course. His combat ability is incredibly high. Careful, MagnetMan!
Commentary
- This scenario opens in the aftermath of a play date with Lan's friends. I am immediately annoyed, because Lan mentions how much he enjoyed the good times he had with his friends. The good times that I didn't get to see. If Lan enjoys being around his friends and the player is meant to like them, let them actually have a good time together instead of being professional hostages.
- In Team ProtoMan, Lan is approached by Charlie, who doesn't look menacing in the slightest and even outright says he's not with Nebula. Furthermore, his Navi looks like an Autobot, which only serves to decrease his menace out of universe. That he knows Lan's name isn't even unsettling because Lan is well-known, or at least SHOULD be well-known by virtue of his accomplishments, such as tournament wins or the various accolades he's received for stopping the WWW and Gospel. This is clearly forced drama, and I'm assuming the only reason that Lan is acting guarded around Charlie here is because he recognizes that Charlie has a custom sprite and is thereby a more important character than the usual NPCs he hangs out with.
- In Team Colonel, Lan is approached by Dark Miyabi, a stranger who looks VERY unsettling. When Lan asks if he's with Nebula, Miyabi remarks that he's "very close" to the actual answer, which isn't a good sign. This tension is only ramped up when it's revealed that he's ShadowMan's operator.
- Upon checking Charlie's MMKB page for more background info, I found an image of him saying to Mayl "I'll be back for you in ten years." I shouldn't be thinking of Glenn Quagmire when I play MegaMan, so that's another point against Team ProtoMan. He's even in aviation!
- Lan remembered Style Change in between two games, but somehow needs a reminder of what MegaMan's power from the last game was. Even though that power somewhat factored into the story of the game with the confrontations against LaserMan.
- Magnet Soul is underwhelming. It gets some better options later in the game with ElecReel3, but it doesn't make the best first impression and its best options require quite a bit of set-up. I also have to wonder why Magnet Soul is the first Soul given in Team ProtoMan when there have been absolutely no electric viruses at this point. In contrast, the Drill Comp provided plenty of chips for fueling Knight Soul, and Cannonball chips can be purchased now as well.
- Lan's confrontation with Charlie ends on a fairly mild note, as opposed to his confrontation with Miyabi, which continues the tension until he joins as a team member.
- At this point, there are at least two Dark Chip peddlers available to buy from: one near SciLab and one in ACDC. Ignoring the fact that selling outside of SciLab is hilarious, the thing that baffles me most is that two additional Dark Chips come from Higsby's Number Trader! Wasn't he saying in the last game how it was bad to have Dark Chips? Why would he have these as a prize?! Are they supposed to be newer types of Dark Chips? The Dark Chip Lan had in the last game wasn't a Battle Chip like the ones here. I would think the purple tint would give them away, though, especially for a discerning chip collector like Higsby.
- I would praise Battle Network 5 for using the MegaMan DS/Duo fight as a justification why the anxious Dark Chip mechanic doesn't show up, with MegaMan having overcome his Dark Side, but again, it feels like the Dark Chips never offered a meaningful temptation in 4 considering the extreme risks they pose for little gain.
- Talking to Haruka at the house after Chaud's summons Lan to his homepage leads to one of the few times I can recall seeing Yuichiro's name in-game.
- Lan's friends continue talking about how much they miss their Navis. I know their PETs were taken, but is there no way they can recreate them from backup data or something and then merge them with the originals once they get them back?
- Mr. Famous developed GridMan/FootMan as an anti-Nebula Navi. Despite that, GridMan never fights against Nebula a single time in this game. Even stranger, he actually gets an HP bug when hit by Django, much like Nebula Navis. Is he supposed to be designed as a pseudo-Darkloid?
- On the topic of Django, it would've been really cool if Django DS had been Black Django and Django SP was Sol Django, at least for the DS remake where Boktai 3 was already released.
- If MagnetMan is broken, how did Tesla send an email?
- MegaMan says that Charlie deciding not to delete MagnetMan proves that he isn't a Nebula agent. And I'm inclined to disagree. A number of previous villains we've seen up to this point have used convoluted methods. Need I remind you of Sunayama? Or Regal's whole asteroid plot, for that matter.
- This is probably my least favorite scenario in the game for the sheer amount of padding. No, I don't like having had to have run all over Oran and SciLab twice, revisit the same dungeon I did in the last scenario, and also go through ACDC again for good measure. The conveyor belts are turned off in Drill Comp and the Party Battle System is active this time, but that still doesn't improve the recent repeat for me.
- Charlie being an asshole makes a lot more sense after Chaud reveals that he's Netopian.
- Nebula does a thing and the Party Battle System stops working in SciLab Area. Also, you can't jack in from Oran Area again because... reasons!
- A quiz giver outside of SciLab gives me my fifth Dark Chip. As he does, I can't help but notice that all of these Dark Chip peddlers exist, and yet we still see no sign of regular Navis using Dark Chips or succumbing to the effects of Dark Chips. You're wasting all of the possibilities of your premise, Capcom!
- I could possibly accept Charlie/Miyabi testing MegaMan for their own reasons, but Chaud/Baryl already tested him when founding the team. Did we really need another rehash of this when it barely made sense the first time? Also, I guess Tesla/Pride is implied to have been aware of this the whole time, so MagnetMan/KnightMan willingly subjected himself to being split into pieces. Creepy.
- In 4.5 and 5, ShadowMan has dialogue where he recites Rin Pyo To Sha Kai Jin Retsu Zai Zen, the nine ninja seals. In 5, this is done before the CloudMan Liberation Mission when he gets rid of the Dark Chip fueling the clouds.
- CloudMan proves to be one of the few competent Nebula villains, not only by being an annoying boss, but also by succeeding in his mission even in defeat.
- The fact that MegaMan's friends just sit back and watch him get surgically altered bothers me. We could at least have something like GutsMan punching the fence and getting electrocuted. Instead, they're just like "Oh no!" while standing there. I guess they don't want to distract from the important part of the scene, but I still don't like it.
- One of the Heel Navis questions the Nebula doctor whether the attempt to implant a Dark Soul will work this time. There is a dying Navi here later in the game, so it's possible this is a reference to the fact that the Navis here are meant to be test subjects, even though Roll and Co. are never used for such a purpose.
- Not content with just torturing Yuichiro, Regal proceeds to have his Navis basically rip MegaMan apart from the inside out while they take perverse enjoyment in it. Except this is actually shown onscreen, while Yuichiro got a tasteful cut to black for his MGS-style electrocution.
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NapalmMan/DarkMega
Personal Notes
- GBA Slot-In: Battle Network 3
- NapalmMan/TomahawkMan (Thoughts): Between the two heavy-hitters of the team, NapalmMan goes all in on hard hitting damage at the trade-off of being a glass cannon. His rapid-fire buster is akin to Geo's and he also lays down convenient cover fire with his support effect. TomahawkMan is no slouch either, but he does seem a bit more geared towards being a strong immovable wall rather than an overwhelming offense. NapalmMan slightly edges out TomahawkMan, but I can't say that either is exactly bad. With a TP Chip in a Liberation Mission, I'd pair KnightMan with NapalmMan for defensive support if he struggles with it.
Version Exclusive Dialogue
- *Conversation*
- All Navis: MegaMan! Wake up!
- *Conversation*
- All Navis: There's no other choice. We've got to fight, Lan!
- *Conversation*
- All Navis: Let's do it!
Commentary
- This is probably my second-most favorite scenario in the game despite my distaste for a number of elements around it. It also works more effectively than any of the "Oh no, MegaMan is in danger!" moments in BN6.
- Talking to Dex at the start of this scenario has him mention that he's going on a trip to hone his battle technique. Since I know for a fact that nothing comes from this, you never fight GutsMan again, and Dex can't even practice technique without a Navi, this upsets me.
- Collecting my eighth Dark Chip has caused me to muse on these some more. In the last game, ShadeMan mentioned that the Dark Chip that MegaMan had contained special data. That Dark Chip was also corrupting MegaMan despite not being used. The same problem has not been seen by Lan possessing these chips, which work like regular Battle Chips. Presumably, the Dark Chip in 4 was meant to draw out the user's Dark Soul directly, like a more intense version of the Dark Invis chip, while these seem to be more like the Akuma chip from the anime.
- While you don't have a Navi, Mr. Famous disappears from Oran Isle.
- Unsurprisingly, Chaud doesn't really know how to be delicate with Lan's feelings here, instead telling him to focus on what he needs to do. I'm going to chalk that up to how Shuuseki raised him, since the man doesn't seem like the coddling type.
- "What do you think MegaMan would say to you now?" "He'd probably tell me to give you a left hook, too."
- As a continuation of his earlier trust letting Lan operate ProtoMan, this scene of Chaud giving ProtoMan to Lan indefinitely until MegaMan is rescued is another sign of how far their relationship has come since the earlier games.
- Once you get ProtoMan, Dex has gone to Oran Isle for physical fitness training. While I'm not sure this will help him in Net Battling, I can't say I don't understand his desire to do something with all of his pent up frustration. How did he get out here on his own, though? For that matter, how does Lan keep getting here?
- ProtoMan/Colonel being unable to pick up HP Memories for MegaMan is lame. Can't it just be stored in MegaMan's HP pool? His present HP value is already stored in the game somewhere, right? If you've missed any homepage links or codes, you can't pick those up either.
- Chaud and Baryl, who have been operating at SciLab, didn't know that SciLab sealed off the route to End Area. How would this go over their heads? Who is in charge here with Yuichiro gone? Doesn't SciLab work with Officials? This is just a poor excuse to encourage backtracking to SciLab Area.
- Why is ProtoMan, the top Official, being tested?! Does his reputation not precede him?!
- A female Navi in SciLab sells me her Dark Chip because she finds it sketchy. I like to imagine that the reason Lan is collecting these Dark Chips is as part of an assignment by Chaud/Baryl to get them off the streets when possible.
- The Collect program comes very early in this game, being obtained from End Area 1. That makes me pleased. Unfortunately, I can't use it and I can't check what color is it without MegaMan, so 
.
- This is the point in the game where I start to really detest traveling the main internet. Every area feels unnecessarily winding and obnoxious aside from ACDC. I'm unsure whether I dislike this Net more than 3's Press infested roads or not, though both are strong contenders for second least favorite behind 1's.
- While MegaMan being the boss of this scenario is a cool idea, the reveal of this shares a scene with ProtoMan being afraid of 12 Heel Navis. Again, I am reminded that ProtoMan took on 500 in Blue Moon, so I guess Red Sun ProtoMan is bitch made. It doesn't help that MegaMan took on this many Heel Navis in both BN3 and BN4.
- This makes no sense in Colonel's version either, as ShadowMan is on the team and has been established to have at least three ninja goons that he can summon at will based on BN2. Not to mention his clone technique. It shouldn't be remotely difficult for Team Colonel to meet or even exceed these numbers.
- Ubercorp is making a Booster Program that can upgrade whatever it's linked to, and this sounds like something that should be a big deal. Neither of these things are ever mentioned again, only serving to highlight how often places, things, and organizations in this series are brought up once and then never again.
- As if in opposition to my commentary above, Shuuseki Chaud is actually mentioned by Lan.
- The scene of Lan getting the invite from Tesla is cute. While Pride hands it over immediately, Tesla teases Lan about possibly having a date before giving it to him.
- That said, I do not enjoy the fact that this isn't a mission that both tackle together. There will be two problems on the boat that they could've split up to handle: the Nebula agent and the new team member. The part that bothers me most, though, is that Lan doesn't even bother telling Tesla he is doing work for Chaud. There is no reason for Lan to take this invite from his own teammate rather than letting them handle it. If he feels the need to get involved, surely both Tesla and Pride hold enough sway to get his presence with them excused. This game spends so much time slinging you towards your next teammate that it forgets to actually have Lan build rapport with the ones that are already there!
- Obviously evil Nebula guy is so obviously evil that even Lan can't believe how obviously evil he is. Regal doesn't have a subtle bone in his body, let alone his organization.
- The picture on the Queen Bohemia was originally a picture of The Last Supper in Japanese instead of fireworks.
- The Nebula Navi recognizes ProtoMan and knows of Chaud but isn't familiar with Lan despite DarkMega being in Nebula. What?
- The Nebula Navi leaves behind viruses to stall you while fleeing in the DS version.
- The Nebula goon's weird habit of hissing his S sounds disappears when he's being accused of stealing the booster program. Did he just do it to fit in Nebula? Was it just his shtick and it dropped now that he's panicked? I could buy the idea that Dr. Regal makes this guy talk like a snake to prove he's evil.
- Nenji (Fyrefox) needs to steal an extremely expensive booster system in order to... make fireworks. Real world fireworks. Separated from the internet. That will be powered by a program.
- For some reason, the Ship Comp is flooding despite neither NapalmMan nor TomahawkMan being able to control water. I guess I can buy them being able to damage a ship, but why? What's the point of damaging the ship's computer, just to hide at the back in a dead end?
- The Ship Comp's gimmick is obnoxious. ProtoMan and Colonel have an air gauge that inflicts damage every second when it runs out. There are bubbles underwater to help you regain air, but there are also underwater tornadoes to damage you and take air as well as currents that push you backwards and expend air even if you resist them. Additionally, you need to remain holding their exact direction for multiple seconds, with you getting pushed back immediately the second you let go too early. This becomes particularly obnoxious when you need to turn to take a side path while you're being buffeted by the current.
- Following the battle, ProtoMan waits for Lan's order before deciding how to handle NapalmMan while Colonel intends to delete TomahawkMan without mercy. I like the distinction drawn between the two here, particularly since Colonel's lack of kindness and mercy will become a plot point in the next game.
- Nenji is the one who suggests them fighting against Nebula in Team ProtoMan, while it's Colonel's idea to recruit TomahawkMan to his side in Team Colonel.
- Thus far, Team ProtoMan is made up of a woman who almost killed some kids just because, Quagmire, and a guy who tried to rob a company of millions for purely selfish reasons. These are the heroes of this game. And about half of their Navis have issues following orders from Lan and/or ProtoMan.
- I'm kind of disappointed that NapalmMan's speech to DarkMega isn't "You were the Chosen One! You were supposed to bring order to the Net, not destroy it!"
- DarkMega confuses me on a conceptual level. He doesn't seem to be MegaMan DS, given that he was said to be implanted and MegaMan DS never actually speaks the three instances he shows up. Why not just make DarkMega be MegaMan DS and give him an established personality? The manga and anime both handle the character better by making him a recurring adversary of MegaMan's. Interestingly, the anime version seems to care about Lan somewhat, inheriting that aspect from the original.
- It's likely unintentional, given BN4's reverting Lan to his old tendencies, but it's a nice inversion of the usual Lan/MegaMan relationship by having MegaMan being the one who is asleep while Lan is waiting for him to wake up.
- As Dr. Regal says "Dang MegaMan and his friends!", I'm reminded that Lan has sworn more than this supposed master of evil. It really just makes Regal look more childish, even if this dialogue is more consistent with the tone the series was meant to have. His follow-up conversation with CosmoMan also comes across as him throwing a tantrum, which hurts his image after the strong introduction he had earlier.
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SearchMan/CosmoMan
Personal Notes
- GBA Slot-In: Battle Network 4.5
- SearchMan/NumberMan (Thoughts): NumberMan feels as though he's the superior option in Liberation Missions. He has a wider range of search, in contrast to SearchMan's longer range, but instantly defuses traps and collects items without the need for a battle. That being said, those traits are an indication of how he performs worse in battle than SearchMan. It also vexes me that neither have access to the chip searching abilities of their Souls.
Version Exclusive Dialogue
- ProtoMan: That's right, Lan! This is it, CosmoMan!
- MagnetMan: You the man, Lan! Let's kick his butt! Charge!
- NapalmMan: You the man, Lan! Let's kick butt!
- SearchMan: I couldn't agree more! This is it, CosmoMan!
Commentary
- Chaud hires a member of the Sharo military to join Team ProtoMan, while Higsby finds out about Team Colonel somehow and begs to join in order to get man cred. I guess all of Team Colonel's scenarios can't win out in terms of sense.
- Charlie's past interaction with Laika is hilarious and it is nice to see so many characters involved in the conversation, but it only serves to highlight how Team ProtoMan is full of jerks. Laika immediately insults Tesla and Charlie before being rude to Chaud. Why does this whole team feel so dysfunctional?
- Lan doesn't seem familiar with Laika, so I'm guessing he canonically never met him in 4 despite this game stemming from Red Sun.
- Gyro Soul is a monster with its ability to dramatically increase the damage of Null and Wind chips, particularly SuperVulcan and Tornado. Adding Double Point to either (and Sea Seed to Tornado) makes it a fantastic boss killer.
- Napalm Soul initially seemed underwhelming, but Black Bomb and Grass Seed together make its Napalm Bombs very potent. V-Doll can also be used for additional punishment, though the doll should be thrown before the Grass Seed for maximum benefit.
- The Napalm Soul email does not mention its ability to absorb lava panels to power up fire chips.
- Chaos Unison being unlocked at this point means MegaMan goes from having one transformation before to six now, which highlights the unfortunate part of removing him as being playable for a scenario. Additionally, I feel the Chaos Unison recolors are a bit uninspired and lacking in thought. Magnet Chaos could have been dark blue to mimic the NS Tackle color scheme, but that color goes to Meddy Chaos instead for no clear reason.
- I don't have much to say about the Chaos Unisons. There are a number that are mid and a number that are strong.
- In Team Colonel, Higsby puts off the mission to liberate CosmoMan's area in order to escort Ms. Mari. Colonel is not impressed and threatens to kick him off the team if he pulls a stunt like that again. In Team ProtoMan, Laika is instead called to handle capturing a notorious Nebula agent in the Sharo Area, which makes more sense. Granted, I don't believe that agent ever shows up again after this scenario despite escaping, so there you go.
- The homepage of End Area is made into a generic space in the GBA version.
- The "gargoyle" at the top of the End Area castle is called a Shachihoko in Japanese. It is a yokai that has the head of a tiger and the body of a carp, believed to be able to hold vast quantities of water within its stomach and summon rain. It's mainly kept on older buildings in order to protect them from fire damage. Presumably, the Shachihoko is protecting this game from another appearance by Mr. Match.
- I know this scenario has to lead to a boss fight against SearchMan/NumberMan, but how did the imitator find out about the new member so far in advance that they were able to send someone to disguise themselves as them?
- Did Yuichiro intend to take Lan and his friends on a clue hunt? Because he clearly wasn't intending to show them the ACDC Vision Burst in his lab in SciLab.
- There was a missed opportunity in not having the Vision Burst of ACDC look like the town did in the original trilogy.
- Gow is(?)/was seemingly based on Paprika from MegaMan Legends.
- The motivation of "These Dark Chips are awesome and give me more power" seems more fitting for Higsby and NumberMan than Laika and SearchMan. For one thing, MegaMan trying to talk a Navi he just met out of working for Nebula rings a bit hollow given they have little established prior relationship, not to mention the fact that Laika has been fighting Nebula in both 4 and 5. Meanwhile, Higsby’s motivation for joining the WWW was having powerful, rare chips and his having Dark Chips in the Number Trader seems a bit ominous. Of course, this winds up being a fake Navi, so that still winds up being nonsense that is never explained, but for the moment it's at least consistent with the established patterns of behavior.
- Samurai, ninja, and oni viruses. Sure is Japanese in here.
- I'm not a fan of the 100 Samurai mini-game. Needing to react to multiple enemies moving at different speeds that you can only hit in melee range is very disorienting, particularly when there's a cooldown on turning after a swing. Star Force 1 would go on to have a mini-game like this which is "better" because Geo attacks with a ranged option, but even that mini-game is held back by being controlled by the touchscreen. Star Force DX fixes it, but that's not an official release.
- The 100 Samurai mini-game is based on the story of Benkei, apparently.
- What exactly is Regal's endgame here? He's trying to destroy Team ProtoMan/Colonel from the inside, but he only messes with the newest member and Lan, followed by him immediately setting both of the impostors to do some other evil shenanigans wherein they immediately reveal themselves as fakes. It feels like his plan got derailed by his usual Nebula brand of 
and lost purpose of what it was supposed to be.
- While I think the Gargoyle Comp has the best aesthetic of the dungeons in this game, its gimmick of "you can only swap ninjas" is more complicated than it needs to be. Why can't I just select what ninjas I want to follow me like in BeastMan's dungeon? Just redesign the dungeon with that gimmick in mind.
- "SearchMan, you're in Nebula!" "No, MegaMan, YOU'RE in Nebula!" "Even though we're both clearly confused about something, let's fight instead of talking it out!" This is even WORSE in Team Colonel version, where Higsby is attacking over Ms. Mari's Navi, who wasn't even deleted.
- To give this scenario some credit, MegaMan can use (and likely is using, due to the underpowered library) a Dark Chip themed transformation around this segment of the game, which adds a bit of merit to your new teammate's suspicions. Granted, this still makes less sense for Higsby, who should know Lan better than Laika!
- Both spies immediately reveal themselves to MegaMan and SearchMan/NumberMan in an attempt to delete them. Why not attack them with a large force rather than your two imposters who could possibly still put in some work?
- What happened to the guy who impersonated Laika/Higsby? And how did they do that? Why are Nebula's agents practically non-existent? Would it have really been a bad idea to have some people working for Regal, maybe because they really liked the power of Dark Chips?
- Regal's plan to take over the Net went from being an integral stage of his plan to just a speed bump for the Officials and their allies. Additionally, the entire Net, foreign countries included, has been reclaimed by defeating Nebula solely within Electopian areas. What?
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Meddy/ProtoMan DS
Personal Notes
- GBA Slot-In: Battle Network 1
- Meddy/ToadMan (Thoughts): Meddy is so unbelievably mishandled that it's staggering. Low base HP, a mediocre Charge Shot, and a sub-par chip capped off with no passive abilities. Even in Double Team DS, her passive ability is a 5% heal every turn, which is 50 HP at maximum HP. The standard attack by the post-game will be 200 damage a hit. Having passive recovery isn't terrible, mind you, but it's still half of what Roll Soul could do five times a turn. In comparison, not only does ToadMan have a better Charge Shot and chip, but he can hide under sea panels, charge Aqua chips for double damage, doesn't slip on ice, and can automatically revive a deleted Navi once per turn. On a more positive note, pairing these two with MagnetMan/KnightMan respectively can make for a nice sustainability pair while traveling the Net outside of Liberation, with Meddy being able to supply mild healing in LMs if you're willing to fight alongside her as well.
Version Exclusive Dialogue
- All Navis: ProtoMan! Do you recognize me?
- ProtoMan: You look familiar to me. Why am I so nervous...? I know that you are the enemies I must defeat.
- All Navis: You're Chaud's Navi and the leader of our team!
- ProtoMan: Why?! What is this? Why do I hesitate?! Master Regal is the one I serve! Master granted me my DarkPower. Now I get the chance to try it! RIGHT...NOW!!
Commentary
- Search Soul is the same as before. Good for shuffling through chips, not particularly noteworthy otherwise.
- The Search Soul email does not mention its ability to see the number of chips an enemy is holding.
- Lan and Mayl have another conversation at the start of the scenario, again showing Mayl as the emotional center of Lan's entourage. That said, I can't fully like this because it's not only another conversation of "Oh, I feel useless, I wish I could help you, abloobloo", which the writing team has no interest in actually doing anything about, it's also melodramatic. Lan has been in no personal danger this whole game. Were it not for MegaMan's temporary brainwashing, this adventure would've had no real danger for the Hikaris. This game has thus far had the lowest stakes in the series.
- If the writers really wanted Mayl to help Lan, there's an opening for a healing Navi RIGHT THERE on Team ProtoMan that could've been filled by Roll. Literally the only thing they would've had to do is maybe give Roll Soul a few other tricks and create an alternate palette for Roll Chaos. That's it. But instead, they have Mayl go through the same old song and dance without having any desire to change anything.
- Lan's friends find out he's in Team ProtoMan/Colonel and blab about it out in the open, alerting Jasmine or Ribitta. I know this is probably supposed to be innocuous, but considering the team's attempts at keeping secret, it just feels like a slight against Lan's friends. They were reintroduced into the story just to blow Lan's cover.
- Ribitta wants to do a story on the Undernet for... some reason. There's certainly a lot of intrigue to be found there, sure, but why the sudden interest in a place that has existed for so long? Is it just because of Nebula? I feel like it'd have made more sense if she wanted an interview with Team Colonel, got rebuked by Lan, and decided to stake out the Undernet to try and witness their next Liberation Mission as it happened. Jasmine's story of trying to find a book of rare medicinal secrets feels like a much more reasonable excuse given that seems like the kind of thing someone in the Undernet would almost certainly try to sell for big zenny. That little quest is never resolved, though the anime apparently does something with it.
- MegaMan gets a Double Attack with both SearchMan and NumberMan after the last scenario. That's pretty cute.
- What's the purpose of these Nebula guys being unable to take off their suits easily? It doesn't seem like Regal's trying to prevent them from fleeing, given this guy escaped. And then there's the fact this guy is confident he can cut it off.
- Vision Bursts never come up again, naturally.
- Tadashi's Navi immediately shuts down upon handing over the key to MegaMan. What would've happened if this had happened a few minutes sooner? Or was he scheduled to shut down upon fulfilling his mission? If so, that seems a bit dehumanizing for a Navi.
- Additionally, this is an unnecessarily annoying run around that's reminding me of the FreezeMan scenario. Go to Oran Isle, now go to SciLab, now go to Oran Isle, now go to SciLab, now go to Oran Isle. That's not cute; it's indicative of a scenario that has very little in terms of compelling plot and so it feels the need to distract me from all of the nothing that's going on.
- Furthermore, the fact that Tadashi can have a Navi in place to give Yuichiro a key conveniently in order to give him access to a thing only goes to show that he could've made it much less of a pain in the ass to collect Gow. Why does Gow have sentience that makes him more difficult to obtain rather than being cooperative like a Navi?
- ALSO, how old is this drill computer that Tadashi can leave cryptic clues as part of this fetch quest inside of it?
- What is even going on here? How did the Nebula Navis get into the Vision Burst without MegaMan's key? And if he was just shadowing MegaMan, how did Gow get from ACDC to the isolated Drill Comp? Why would Gow even be able to jump between completely different net spaces like that if Tadashi wanted Yuichiro to find him?
- I’m not sure how to feel about Darkloids essentially being Heartless that will respawn so long as there is “darkness”. It feels like we’re getting too far away from the concept of programs and data.
- Doing this favor for Higsby, while easy, makes a bit less sense in Team Colonel. I suppose he doesn't know about the compromising of SciLab, but it still feels a bit awkward that I have to do a team member a favor in order to get him to help the team. That said, the fact that he is willing to give Lan access to a secret base, no questions asked, in Team ProtoMan is pretty aces. Still, that's Strike 2, Higsby. You're on thin ice.
- For some reason, Meddy keeps making weird "ARGH!" sounds for pretty much the entirety of the CloudMan scene. I'm assuming the reason she ran forward was to try and make a break into the Undernet, but it's conveyed strangely due to the dialogue.
- CloudMan continues to be the only Darkloid who actually accomplishes anything. Why wasn't he the leader?
- Maybe Colonel being deleted could be considered drama depending on whether or not Baryl has backed him up, especially considering BN6 will reveal that recreating Colonel would essentially be creating a different Navi since he's fractured in two. But ProtoMan? He gets deleted as part of Battle Network 2's plot and gets remade shortly afterwards. Chaud even boasted having his code memorized, so ProtoMan being deleted should be such a non-issue that it's insulting to my intelligence that the game is trying to milk this as drama.
- Bringing Jasmine/Ribitta to the secret base to discuss what just happened is ridiculous. They're not officially part of the team yet. Wasn't the point of this location to prevent just anybody from knowing about where the new Team HQ was?
- Chaud/Baryl making Lan the leader after the conversation they had regarding Lan's concerns is a bunch of nonsense. If Lan doesn't want to step up, someone else can; Tesla or Princess Pride are both qualified leaders that could handle things. More than that, though, is the fact that no one should NEED to step up. Chaud/Baryl can continue to lead without a Navi. Lan doesn't have to do anything different. This is all just melodrama for the sake of it.
- The game wants me to see Lan as a coward for dismissing Jasmine/Ribitta, but he's not wrong. The last time Meddy/ToadMan confronted a Darkloid, they immediately ran away and were a liability that got the team's leader (seemingly) deleted. They've displayed no skills at this point that indicate they deserve a spot on the team. They don't even destroy the door that blocked the route to the Undernet; CloudMan did that.
- Considering that Navi ghosts have been established from the outset, I don't mind the idea of vengeful ghosts, and certainly not in a place like the Undernet which had so many spiritual elements added in previous games. I'm even going to give the game the benefit of the doubt and assume the Normal Navi saying "the ghosts of dead people" is just his way of referring to Navis like him and MegaMan. My question is why these ghosts randomly come out right now before never showing up again.
- The Undernet is emitting an "aura" that disrupts the Party Battle System. Naturally, this will never be mentioned again and never interfere with the system again.
- GyroMan speaks on behalf of the team in Team ProtoMan, while it's NumberMan in Team Colonel following the battle with the final teammate.
- Dark Power is a violent power that can be soothed with healing, which is a fine enough idea. But that only makes me saltier that Roll was never allowed to do anything worthwhile against Darkloids with her own healing powers.
- MagnetMan seems like less of a jerk to MegaMan, though it's less due to character development and more because he hasn't been the focus in however long. So the writers just kind of had him abruptly stop being an asshole.
- Ribitta is the only person on Team Colonel without a criminal record.
- Prior to the Liberation Mission, NPCs spawn into the Undernet that can be spoken to now that the ghosts are gone. They disappear after the mission.
- "Even I didn't realize he disguised the Hikari Report as a dog." I don't know if this is usual Battle Network stupid, or just regular stupid. It feels like the latter, though. Possibly because disguising it as literally the only internet dog in existence doesn't feel very secretive.
- Dr. Regal already has Nebula Gray. With no build-up at all. Just like how Duo showed up last minute in the previous games. Every game where Wily is the villain establishes what the final boss will be in advance. Even Gospel, for as secretive as it was for most of the game, foreshadowed the Bug Fusion twist with the trader in Kotobuki Square and even talked about the Super Navi plan during KnightMan's scenario. Nebula Gray has never been said to exist at all prior to this point.
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Microservers
Personal Notes
- GBA Slot-In: Battle Network 5
- Regal's master plan is to turn everyone into an asshole. For all of the buildup, that feels rather childish. Mass brainwashing should be a terrifying prospect, but the way it's being conveyed just makes it seem like Regal wants everyone to have playground arguments.
- Meddy Soul is very RNG heavy. Its best tool is paralysis, while its other options don't offer too much in terms of benefit. This is likely why only White Capsule becomes a Battle Chip in the next game.
- On the other hand, the Meddy Battle Chip is low-key very powerful. It's listed as doing 80/200 damage (Normal/SP or DS), but that actually hits twice, meaning the SP chip can break Life Aura on Holy Panels.
- To my immense surprise, there is a lot of dialogue from the NPCs online only available during the brief segment of control you have over Lan before he goes outside and triggers the next cutscene where everyone is made evil.
- After Haruka hands over the medal to Lan, her head starts to hurt. While I appreciate the attempt to foreshadow the MagnoMetal thing, which has basically not come up at all before beyond being name-dropped a few times mind you, that begs the question of why Lan's head wasn't hurting before the cutscene ended. Also, how does a tiny amulet protect Lan's entire body AND his PET/Navi?
- Yai's version of being affected by the evil beam is acting like Scrooge McDuck. So, the same as usual.
- In comparison to everyone else becoming angry enough to fight, Haruka just breaks down crying about her husband being kidnapped. Throughout the game she talks about Yuichiro a number of times and clearly isn't handling the situation too well despite trying to avoid it, but the effect of the evil beam seems to be overwhelming her with repressed emotion.
- While everyone in ACDC is affected by the evil beam, including Nanako and the Dark Chip dealer behind Higsby's, NumberMan will still give you things from the Number Trader. Then again, NumberMan is elsewhere in Team Colonel, so maybe it's not the actual NumberMan? That being said, I checked the nearby networks (isolated, homepage, AND main internet) and even the Mr. Progs are fighting at this point, so the Number Trader shouldn't be working at all either way.
- Despite spending the whole game at Oran Isle, Tesla/Pride is no longer there and replaced by Jasmine/Ribitta. There is also no mass brainwashing in the area due to this area being isolated. I guess this makes things convenient for Jasmine/Ribitta to be approached by Baryl/Chaud for the upcoming leader rescue.
- Nenji/Dingo manages to resist being controlled by the microserver until shortly around the time Lan arrives. The captain of the ship manages to resist its effect the whole time just by wrestling with his self-control. Can I get the captain as a team member?
- Why does Lan jack in to fight Nenji/Dingo, jack out, then jack MegaMan back in to destroy the microserver? This is a weird sequence of events.
- Charlie and Miyabi are immune to the brainwashing server because reasons. Do they have MagnoMetal on them? MagnoMetal plot armor, maybe?
- Meddy and ToadMan show up to save MegaMan and help get the team leader back. I'm glad the scenario writer(s) at least realized they needed to do something to pull their weight after causing nothing but trouble in their recruitment scenario.
- As if proving my point about the earlier melodrama, Chaud and Baryl are now back to leading the team. Furthermore, Lan's only leadership since accepting the role has been leading a Liberation Mission, which he has always done. The Microserver incident did not involve Lan giving orders to the other members of the team at all. What a bunch of nonsense.
- Why didn't MegaMan's access log have the Nebula base? He was taken to the same area as Roll and Co., who are definitely being held at Nebula's base.
- Proto Soul is about the same, but lost its passive of swords not flinching and its charge shot being able to counter.
- I don't know if Haruka knows about the team, but it is nice that Haruka is observant enough to realize her son is doing the usual thing. I wonder if this conversation here inspired Geo's interactions with his mother in Star Force 3.
- How did Tadashi install a program within MegaMan that makes him react to the Vision Burst? Also when? Also why?
- I chose this time to do the Bass Cross scenario in Oran Area 3. MegaMan getting a Bass transformation is just kind of glossed over in terms of explanation, but it's the whole reason why they're fighting.
- The Bass forms are okay, though most of their abilities tend to not help me very much in my videos given I aim to not take damage. Sol Cross is pretty neat, though, and I like how it incorporates Django's Gun del Sol and Otenko's ability buff as a nod to the fact that the form is a union with the both of them.
- For as much as I've ragged on Battle Network 5's plot, I do rather like the irony of Tadashi and Wily working together on a joint project that ultimately is driving a wedge between their present day families. It reminds me of the Venom suit in Ultimate Spider-Man being worked on by the Parkers and the Brocks before Eddie went nuts and decided to merge with it and became driven to kill Peter.
- Soul Net seems like a very strange endeavor, but I can give it a pass. This flashback takes place before the Alpha Rebellion, so Tadashi is probably on a high thinking about how his internet research can help fix the world rather than thinking of the possible dangers.
- MegaMan tries to talk to Young!Wily/Young!Tadashi despite having been told by Chaud/Baryl that Vision Bursts are just replays of old scenarios where nothing reacts to modern day interference, hence why Gow was considered unusual. This is just so Wily can drop some foreshadowing of how he's going to mindfuck the evil out of Regal later. Granted, this foreshadowing is only in Team ProtoMan, as Team Colonel features an inconsequential scene with Tadashi instead.
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Nebula Gray
Personal Notes
- GBA Slot-In: Boktai/Boktai 2
Version Exclusive Dialogue
- ACDC Park:
* Tesla: Enough's enough! No more negative thoughts!
* Nenji: I am SO nervous all of a sudden. But it's too late to turn back! LET'S DO IT!
* Jasmine: Meddy feels like a million Zenny today! I'll do my best for her!
* Charlie: I'm so glad this is the last battle! What a feeling!
* Laika: You don't look nervous! But don't get too relaxed, either!
- Factory Comp 1:
* Lan: Go for it, Tesla!
* Tesla: If you please, Lan! (Switching); MagnetMan, jack out? OK! Lan! I'm sorry, but I'm jacking out now. (Jacking out)
* MagnetMan: Tesla, perhaps we should retreat? (Fleeing); ...Dang it! Couldn't get away! (Fleeing failed); ...We did it! Managed to get away! (Fleeing success)
- Factory Comp 2:
* Lan: Charlie, now's your chance!!!
* Charlie: It's all yours, Lan! (Switching); GyroMan, jack out? Come back now! Lan, I'm sorry, but I'm jacking out now. (Jacking out)
* GyroMan: Charlie, shall we retreat for now? (Fleeing); ...Yeow! Couldn't get away! (Fleeing failed); ...We did it! Managed to escape! (Fleeing success)
- Factory Comp 3:
* Lan: Nenji, go for it!
* Nenji: Laika, take over! (Switching); NapalmMan, jack out? OK! Get out! Lan! Laika! I'm sorry, but I'm jacking out now. (Jacking out)
* NapalmMan: Nenji, I hate to ask, but should we run away? (Fleeing); ...Shoot! We couldn't escape! (Fleeing failed); ...We did it! We got away. (Fleeing success)
* Laika: Go for it, Lan! (Switching); SearchMan, jack out? Roger. Hikari! Nenji! The mission's suspended. (Jacking out)
* SearchMan: Laika, shall we disengage for now? (Fleeing); ...Hrk! We couldn't escape! (Fleeing failed); ...Managed to escape. (Fleeing success)
- Factory Comp 4:
* Lan: Chaud, go for it!
* Chaud: Jasmine!!! (Switching); ProtoMan, jack out? Understood. Lan! Jasmine! I'll jack out now. (Jacking out)
* ProtoMan: Master Chaud, should we disengage for now? (Fleeing); ...Hrk! We can't get away!!! (Fleeing failed); ...That's it! Managed to run away. (Fleeing success)
* Jasmine: Lan, take over! (Switching); Meddy, jack out? OK! Lan! Chaud! I'm jacking out now. (Jacking out)
* Meddy: Jasmine, maybe we should run away? (Fleeing); ...Eek! Couldn't get away! (Fleeing failed); ...Yay! We ran away! (Fleeing success)
- Regal's Room:
* Chaud: Good luck, Lan.
* Tesla: Go and kick Regal's butt!
* Charlie: You and MegaMan are a great combo! Regal's nothing!
* Nenji: Make some big fireworks!
* Laika: Try to stay calm. It's the surest path to victory.
* Jasmine: Lan, good luck! I'll cheer for you!
Commentary
- Lan's friends show up to say their usual "Be safe, we're worried, yadda yadda yadda". I want to like this, but it feels so hollow with how underutilized these three are in the second trilogy.
- Now that I'm done complaining about how Lan's old friends are handled, let's begin what is one of my favorite scenarios in the series. This arc isn't terribly different from the usual final dungeon fare, but the presentation helps elevate it a lot for me.
- Despite Chaud hiring Charlie, an ace helicopter pilot, to join the team, he will not be piloting the helicopter to Nebula's HQ. He literally had one job.
- Nebula HQ has gun batteries surrounding it, yet none of them fire upon the approaching aircraft. Why even have them, then?
- I’m not even surprised Dr. Regal would make his evil lair at the center of a volcano. I'm not even going to bother asking how everyone will be able to survive being in a room full of lava.
- Apparently, this is the location of WAZA HQ in Star Force 3.
- One thing the scenario does right out the gate is a good final area theme. While it's poor planning for Regal to put all of his ducks in one place with Soul Server and the Dark Chip Factory being in the same building, it does help emphasize that this is the final battle with Regal. It's also interesting to see the process by which Battle Chips, even if they are Dark Chips, are made.
- MagnetMan is back to his weird "I'm only on this team for Ms. Tesla" phase, which completely contradicts how he was a little while ago when ProtoMan was kidnapped.
- Lan intentionally disables the Party Battle System for here to avoid overcomplicating things since this dungeon requires switching between multiple Navis.
- The final dungeon music is great. Furthermore, this is the only time in the main series that you can play as an operator/Navi combo that doesn't involve Lan operating or MegaMan being the playable Navi, even if they do still wind up using Lan's folder for some reason and also don't have the HP values they had when they were fought last scenario! Partners are also unable to use Dark Chips or access the menu, both requiring the use of MegaMan.
- To level some complaints against the dungeon, MegaMan does very little aside from wait for his teammates to open doors. Additionaly, the teammates don't have enough HP to use Sneak Run effectively or consistently flee from enemies. And while it's a surprise the first time, Nebula's Navis sending the teammates to the Shadow Realm becomes very repetitive before long. Capcom could've also stood to add some suction lines instead of the Navis looking like they're just standing there and letting the hole eat them.
- Why didn't Regal just design more of these computers to be separate like the second set? Or on movable platforms? If he had, he might've won.
- Charlie kicks the random Nebula goon so hard that he explodes. I can only assume that Miyabi shanks him. I'd feel bad, but he literally showed up just to deliver exposition, so he kinda deserved it.
- ShadeMan doesn't say "whee" at all this whole conversation!
- Charlie says that GyroMan's soul lives on in MegaMan, and he swears on GyroMan's soul that he will defeat Regal. I wonder if I should kill Nebula Gray with Gyro Soul.
- CloudMan is the best villain in this game. Without fail, he has continually managed to inconvenience the heroes with every single appearance. He and BlizzardMan are also the only two Nebula Navis with a consistent speech pattern.
- I'm not sure why ProtoMan still calls Chaud "master". Maybe he just calls him "Enzan-sama" in Japanese and they had a hard time translating that without it sounding overly formal.
- ProtoMan's voice clips are disabled for this dungeon because Lan isn't operating him, and they didn't bother making any voice clips for when he's operated by Chaud. Likewise with Colonel and Baryl.
- "I'm sure our fathers would be pleased Soul Net is complete." "No, they wouldn't." "Yeah, you're right." Regal, do you just like hearing yourself talk?
- I can't help but wonder why Regal even bothered leaving Roll and Co. alive instead of deleting them immediately or turning them into Darkloids to fight MegaMan.
- I'm pretty sure that isn't an intentional "GutsMan's ass" reference, but it still made me laugh. I have no idea how the Navi died without being deleted, though.
- It sure is convenient that Haruka decided to give Lan the MagnoMetal amulet on the exact occasion it came in handy. What if Regal had tried his microservers nonsense in the last game instead of the stupid asteroid thing?
- "Several years ago, I successfully digitized man's evil soul." Um... how did you do that without Soul Net? How did you amplify the evil? What the hell are you even talking about? I think this whole plot would've made more sense if Regal had Soul Net from the outset but needed to find and unleash Nebula Gray. I don't know, maybe Dr. Regal is just weaponizing Twitter.
- Nebula Gray is a better final boss than Duo, though the selection of chips in this game does still feel a little wanting. Much like Duo, he also cannot be countered, which is lame. On the plus side, Sol Cross gets a sunlight bonus in the room you fight him in, so that's nice.
- Nebula Gray is said to be the source of Darkloids. Nebula Gray also uses Dark Chips. But the Darkloids don't use Dark Chips because... reasons. This is even more confusing than it was previously thanks to Nebula Gray. Shouldn’t succumbing to darkness not be an issue if Nebula Gray creates them and is able to harness Dark Chips itself?
- Tadashi Hikari bullshits himself back from beyond the grave to do a thing. Originally I was baffled by this, but research has shown that's consistent with the Classic series. Maybe he sealed himself into Soul Net, too? IDK. This is made explicit in Team ProtoMan, while the identity of the speaker is only vaguely alluded to in Team Colonel.
- Super Saiyan Hub + the team coming together to destroy Nebula Gray is my favorite scene from this game. Possibly even my favorite ending sequence in the franchise. It's much more personal than the last game's ending, and MegaMan doesn't get worfed in favor of Colonel like in the next game. The one shortcoming of this sequence, minor as it may be, is that MegaMan never got a Soul transformation from Glyde, so the "linked by our souls" comment falls short in regard to him.
- Additionally, the fact that this battle is a match-up between a soul that Yuichiro digitized and an amalgam of several souls that Dr. Regal digitized is also interesting, especially given how Yuichiro gave Navis personality programs in the first place so they could be more human-like.
- I don't know if I'd say the game has earned this little moment between Yuichiro and Regal, but I do like how Yuichiro is at least trying to prevent there being another Albert Wily, something his father couldn't do. Of course, given how this scene will play out, Yuichiro couldn't manage it in the end either.
- In Team ProtoMan, Wily's involvement in the scene is obscured for some reason. I'm assuming because Team ProtoMan came out first and Capcom wanted to hook people into buying the other version.
- I do find it funny that, regardless of which version you play, both people who invented the internet think that Dr. Regal is a dipshit and are actively working against him.
- Even though Wily hates the Hikaris and later tries to get Yuichiro arrested in 6, he passes an opportunity to kill Yuichiro here. I have to believe this was done out of concern for his son, given that no one would accept Regal's change from evil if it came at the cost of Yuichiro's life. Speaking of Yuichiro, he really bounced back from that torture, huh?
- It's kind of fucked up that Wily erases ten years of his son's memories and basically lobotomizes him into a completely different person. This genuinely might be the darkest thing in the series, and what's worse is that the only two people who know about it are the least likely to tell anyone. It's even worse because the fact that Dr. Regal feels the need to brainwash the world to be evil AND also protects himself from this with MagnoMetal suggests that, deep down, he doesn't even believe in his own rhetoric! Just focus on that instead of making an easy fix!
- So does Dr. Regal just never read the news and find out that he was an international criminal for the last year or so? For that matter, what does Regal even bring to SciLab? The only things we can directly attribute to him are Dark Chips and Nebula Gray, neither of which would be ideal research to pursue for a reformed villain. The best I can assume is that he winds up creating a method to neutralize Dark Power or he revolutionizes the field of geothermal energy since he can apparently just build his evil lab on top of an active volcano.
- Dr. Regal and SciLab never show up again. Even though I didn't like Regal much, that still feels like a wasted opportunity. He could've at least made a cameo in 6. I wonder how he feels about his father now that he's lobotomized.
- I don't really like this ending, because Dr. Regal doesn't choose to be good. He's literally brainwashed. This is no different from what he intended to do to the rest of the world.
- Chain of Wish might be my favorite ending theme in the series because it plays into the theme of the game of the original generation laying the foundation and the new generation improving it by blending the old and new title themes. The composer even worked on the original game's soundtrack! I only wish they saved a song like this for the definitive last game, though.
- Lan's friends playing around in the Vision Burst is a nice closing scene, though it only reminds me that Gow barely existed in this game. Made worse by the fact that everyone immediately ditches him at the end of this scene, and he never shows up again. I sure hope no one else ever goes looking for the Hikari Report.
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Nebula Area
- There are five guardians around the Net that seal a doorway within Nebula Area, but there isn't much interesting dialogue from them. Furthermore, the gate that they seal only has a Grab Revenge chip, which has never been a special chip in the series. A disappointing let down from last time.
- Why does BodyGuard destroy obstacle chips when used?
- There's a Navi in the Undernet who has a Roll DS chip for some reason. He claims that Nebula dropped it, but Nebula never tries to do anything to Roll, nor are there comparable chips for the other two friends. Strange.
- Murkland is said to be the same as Nebula Area, but Black Earth was something different in the last game, with corrupted Navis and a mirror that was designed to purify the user. Why would this be in the same place as the Nebula agents and the Chaos Lord/King Chaos?
- Opening the way to Nebula Area infects all of the viruses in the world with Dark Power that ups them to their second and third forms. What happens to viruses already in their second and third forms, though? Do they become Omega viruses? The world may never know.
- To give credit to Battle Network 5, while it does inflate the room count with three more Liberation Missions, this is the largest post-game area in the series.
- Due to making my videos out of order, I made a mistake with Battle Network 5. Instead of using each Soul against a different Navi on the team than the one they came from and then using the corresponding Soul to fight its DS counterpart, I fought the Omega and DS Navis with the same Souls due to emulating my Battle Network 6 plans. Oops!
- Despite the Chaos Lord being able to take Nebula Gray's form, the Darkloids seem to be permanently deleted here. It seems that the Chaos Lord may just be a naturally powerful shape-shifting Darkloid, based on CosmoMan's statement that Darkloids are born in Nebula Area, and Nebula Gray is the form it took based off of Regal's research into creating a Darkloid support program. But despite being able to take Nebula Gray’s shape, it lacks its ability to recreate the Darkloids. So I suppose they were recreated during the time period where MegaMan and Co. were trying to finish Nebula Gray for good?
- Defeat dialogue for the Darkloids is the same as the first time, meaning that CloudMan's threat here means absolutely nothing this time since he has no further tricks up his sleeves.
- BlizzardMan is treated as a mini-boss and doesn't even have pre-battle dialogue. Poor guy.
- What's with the arbitrary appearance of team members in this area? SearchMan and NapalmMan were around for previous missions but aren't for this one because reasons. I know that each team member gets to do two missions here, but it still is strange that some Navis just decide to peace out. What do they have going on that's more important than this?
- The Chaos Lord says that he will continue to exist so long as there is Dark Power. Dark Power basically doesn't exist as of the next game, though, so uh... 
- I love how Lan and MegaMan keep pretending how they don't know Duo so that they don't have to acknowledge Battle Network 4 happened.
- Bass being merged with Nebula Gray the Chaos Lord might be the inspiration for the movie's plot and Bass' return at the end of Stream. That said, Bass still had his darkness based attacked like Hell's Rolling and Darkness Overload before he fought Slur again, so really the only thing Nebula Gray did was increase his power level. Kind of a missed opportunity to explain his attack pattern change, but it’s not like the anime seemed to care about using Bass that much anyway.
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Boktai 2 - Solar Boy Django (Interlude)
Personal Notes
- Additional supporting information can be found here.
Valentine's Chocolate Dialogue
- Lita: "Ah, Master Django!❤︎ Um, uh... Here, take this!" "....Deluxe Chocolate and Chocolate Bananas don't melt, even in the sun! (Ohhhh! Fool, fool, fool... I'm such an idiot!)"
- Zazie: "Ah, Django. Here, have this!" "Eh, don't get me wrong, awright? I'm only givin' it yer cause I don't want it. I don't like sweets. Nya ha hah!!"
- Violet: "Oh, there you are! This is for you!" "Seems you give Chocolate to someone you like today. I'm going to give some to everyone!"
- Sabata: "What's up, Django? You hungry? What a pain you are... ...Oh well, you'd better have this." "Chocolate is a Healer created by the solar civilization of old. Apparently it started off as a kind of bitter drink."
- Lady: "Come on in, Django. Yes, it's what you've been waiting for." "Don't tell Lita, okay!"
Commentary
- Despite the smaller amount of dungeons, the story feels bigger than the first game's.
- San Miguel and its inhabitants are very charming and it's always nice seeing more townspeople move to Sun Avenue. In terms of setting, this is my favorite Boktai game despite the lack of exotic locations like in 1 and 3.
- The original Japanese game has an affection mechanic that will cause the characters that appear in the ending to give Valentine's chocolate to Django. The English game only retains the affection mechanics for the ending appearances, though the dialogue was translated and remains in the data.
- When Sabata is set to put Django in the Pile Driver, the townspeople have exclusive dialogue for him.
- I'm not sure why Django believes Black Dainn might have saved them all at the end. Durathror had a change of heart when she died, but she was portrayed as emotionally vulnerable and lonely, while Black Dainn has only been cruel and manipulative without pause in his pursuit of mass genocide.
- When you fight ShadeMan, normal attacks do no damage to him at the start of the fight and just make him turn black and disappears before respawning. The only way to damage him is to use Dark magic. After he takes enough damage to turn into ShadeMan Omega, his attacks become faster and harder to dodge, though the bat gimmick fortunately wasn't preserved. It's an odd amount of effort to pay homage to what was a frankly terrible boss.
- Considering Classic MegaMan is solar powered, making the Mega Buster a weapon for Django is kinda cute.
- Most of the weapons feel like they aren't great. Fists are basically Challenge Run only due to their small range, Spears are too thin of an attack radius, Hammers are far too slow to be useful, and Guns are post-game only aside from the energy inefficient Solar Gun. Swords are the only returning weapon in the next game, with different types meant to hearken to Spears and Hammers, albeit with sweeping slashes to help their ranges not feel as bad as here.
- Hitboxes are frustratingly small at times, particularly for small enemies like bats or Klorofulun. Many times it looks like I hit an enemy dead-on with an attack, only for the game to say no.
- The drop pool of items is genuinely laughable. Monsters in the final dungeon have unforged Level 17 weapons as rare drops when you're at the point where you're more than double that amount. On that note, getting items to drop is terrible to begin with given that your best option is swapping between one of two protectors.
- The changes to the Pile Driver are a lot more conducive to exciting battles that make it feel as though you're still fighting the Immortal as opposed to just maintaining a resource.
- The Solar Gun definitely needed to be nerfed from the beginning of the game, but I would prefer just making it so that the Solar Gun was just not as good at the start rather than making it outright worthless at the end due to its overly high energy consumption and small hit area. Alternatively, making a different frame or a Protector that improved Solar Gun efficiency a post-game reward would've been nice.
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Final Thoughts
- For as much as things happen in the plot, the story feels very uneventful. Most of the game is spent building up the roster of the team and fixing the occupation of the Net, but Regal himself notes that the occupation of the Net was just a diversionary tactic rather than anything meaningful. The real meat and potatoes is Soul Net, which is introduced far too late into the game's plot and also a very odd concept that strains credulity, a problem the games involving Nebula have had.
- Battle Network 5 wants me to believe it's a team-based story, but the idea of that becomes more unbelievable the bigger the team gets. Lan takes an invitation away from a member of his team to handle a problem solo. Team members are notably absent from the major events that lead to boss fights. The team only exists in Liberation Missions and the final scenario, and that bugs me. NapalmMan also inexplicably becomes a wholly different character from the last time we saw him with no explanation; Princess Pride can at least be excused as trying to make up for her actions while with Gospel.
- Tadashi and Wily created technology that is causing their sons to clash due to the potential for misuse. Not a bad idea for a plot. Unfortunately, Yuichiro and Regal spend too much time offscreen for their parallel to their parents to really have any proper weight. Furthermore, Yuichiro is too dull of a character to even bother making an antagonist for, let alone one like Dr. Regal who is barely explored. Dr. Regal's contrasts with Yuichiro do exist, with his Navis all being solo as opposed to Yuichiro typically working on humanizing Navis more to cooperate with their operators, but he's just too generic for it to matter and spends more time opposing Lan than his familial opposite.
- The Darkloids, despite increasing their numbers somewhat, still feel like afterthoughts. More time is spent battling against the teammates and the Darkloids cannot even have their higher versions challenged until the post-game, furthering the issue of them feeling like a distant narrative threat. Until the final scenario begins, they all just sit on one section of the Net, doing nothing in particular until the team comes to delete them.
- What was the point of Gow? He shows up, gets caught, and then comes back in the end, only to never make a reappearance in the games. He could've just been a data file or something for all that his character mattered. Maybe if Gow was Rush instead, I'd appreciate his role more, especially since Rush is in the next game as an assist for MegaMan.
- This game jacks out of the internet far too often for my liking. I'd like to be able to choose when I want to jack out in case I want to look for items!
- I'm not a fan of the dungeons in this game. With the exception of the drill loosely being tied into MagnetMan and KnightMan, the computers featured do not tie into the aesthetic of the boss at the end at all. There is no correlation between a sinking ship and the powerhouse team members. There is no correlation between the ninja traps and the scanner team members. Worse, Nebula has no dungeons at all until the final dungeon, which makes them feel less present than even Battle Network 4. At least that game let them have unique set-pieces. The Nebula Navis aren’t even related to the obstacles before their Liberation Missions. What do doors have to do with BlizzardMan? Cannons with ShadeMan? These feel like obstacles designed with your teammates in mind, not the enemies.
- The idea Liberation Missions isn't too far off from something nice, but it's not for me. The battles feel slow and overabundant, and multiple back to back battles without rewards doesn't appeal to me much. The missions also begin to overstay their welcome with the introduction of traps, with viruses like Skully and Dominerd getting introduced shortly after and making them less enjoyable. There's also the issue of chips I add for MegaMan being useless for other team members, like minor chips added for Soul Unison or Dark Chips for Chaos Unison.
- On the topic of folders, they still feel too restrictive. V2 and V3 virus chips are again gated behind completing the story, making building a folder for a Soul all the more difficult until the Nebula Area is almost fully opened. The nerd to Program Advances is mildly annoying, but Full Synchro, Soul Unisons, and Chaos Unisons do at least feel like they can pull their weight when they get going. 5 also adds Program Advances involving Navis back in, to my immense relief.
- Dark Chips, as a concept, are the biggest wasted potential in the series. The idea of corruptive Battle Chips was used in the anime with the Akuma Chip originally, but Dark Chips do more than just make Roll a dominatrix. They provide a cheap power boost while corrupting a Navi and rewriting their mind. This could tear down Yuichiro's reason for giving Navis souls: to allow them to be close to their operators. Instead, the idea is never shown at all beyond the gameplay mechanic aspect. Furthermore, Chaos Unison feels like it muddies the message even further. What is supposed to be the thematic relevance of MegaMan using a corruptive chip but not being taken over by it? Does the power of friendship overcome drug addiction? Is Chaos Unison supposed to be an intervention?
- Ultimately, it's a better overall experience than 4, but it feels more passable than good. I missed the stand out goofy moments like Lan reviving a woman from the dead with curry that managed to brighten up monotonous moments of the game. Here, most occurrences were jsut "Lan fights a new NPC and they become a teammate".
- Being on a team should feel neat, but it's less so when most of that team stands around and does nothing for most of the game, only really offering their Navis to Lan when it's time for the portion of the game that feels the most tedious. At least Double Team DS somewhat fixed that with the Party Battle System.
- Once the story is complete, Battle Network 5 feels like a more enjoyable experience. Virus intensity can be custom tailored at will, allowing Omega Navis to be filtered out a lot easier, Liberation Missions are no longer mandatory (outside of the post-game), and there are no more obnoxious dungeons to deal with. This means that all of the positives in 5 have a chance to shine without anything dragging them down, especially with the new DS additions. It's a shame this is only possible at the very end.